AN: I wrote this in half an hour without much editing, so apologies if it reads a bit convoluted. I don't think it actually meets the criteria of the prompt but this is what I was inspired to write.
Disclaimer: Labyrinth doesn't belong to me.
Prompt: Sarah isn't sure what she's done but she is not the beautiful girl everyone expected her to be. The Goblin King comes to her and sees how Sarah has changed. He is unable to change Sarah's appearance with magic. But does Jareth love Sarah or did he love Sarah and how beautiful she was? (300 words max)
Smile
It's his distant polite smile that hurts most of all. The smile that would have been a smile had it not veiled a grimace. You imagine in his mind's eye the memory of a young girl he once challenged. You envisage how he compares the two images – the one of youth and promise, to the one now before him.
Regret is a bitter taste in the mouth and all the more bitter to see it reflected back to you from his eyes. Those eyes. That once upon that time that never was could have been the glorious view above, beside and next to you in all the years that ran a different course to this. Now far-flung forgotten, perpetually un-remembered.
You've waited so long for a chance to see those eyes, you tell him. He smiles. Forever is how long he shall have to wait to see her eyes again. The acrimony of a wasted life has turned the reality of her into a mordant spectre, which is sour to his senses. Not all the magic in the world can restore that effervescence that once was.
She does not cry. Sadness so desolate has only its quiet company to content itself, bereft the passion of grief. That perfect vision of possibility will haunt her all the remaining days of her life – short as it will be by comparison.
His smile means goodbye. And she wishes it would break the remains of her heart.