Here we are then, and I'll warn that this is a smidgen angsty. I really did intend to write a fluffy one for Ludo, butt..... once Sarah found her way in so did that shadow of drama.
Anyways please enjoy and review!
Ludo was helpless, dumbfounded. The question had been asked and he was unable to say yes or no. Sarah leaned in a little closer: a sign of just how anxious she was to hear an answer, an answer that Ludo, as he plodded through his thoughts, thought unlikely ever to arrive, though for Sarah he would try. He knew her curiosity always needed sharp satisfaction before it dwindled down a little.
She frowned and repeated the question, more eager this time: "Does he still miss me?" A simple enough query yet Ludo still couldn't bring himself to an answer. He couldn't decide which would hurt her more. The quick truth he usually gave or a wicked lie that would probably do just as much damage.
Of course Jareth missed her, they all did. Everyone.
When he missed Sarah, Ludo felt an empty patch of his heart glow a little, needing attention. It was that feeling, though magnified and blown up to the point of explosion that he saw in Jareth. It had started in his eyes, a faint echo of the pain to come, but had slowly found its way through the King's entire being until all that was left was what he had now become: A desolate zombie, devoid of all emotion and life. Oh the King missed Sarah, and he always would.
But Ludo always told Sarah this, and it consumed her with everything else. The pain of longing. The shattered hope. The resonant crystal. All seemed tied to the two of them, though both were too stubborn to admit it. Sarah needed him and he pined for her. Should Ludo lie, he knew what he'd see. A disbelieving girl, not Sarah. She would become something more than a deprived young woman and would be left to face the agony alone.
But now here he was again, with the same problem he'd faced before. Which pain should he inflict upon Sarah today?
Breathing slowly and staring up at her, Ludo felt a glimmer of hope. He stretched a gentle hand out for her to take and prepared to do something he'd never done before. If neither were ready to go to the other then why couldn't Ludo just make one of them, after all it wouldn't really mean either would have to give up. They'd both win. Sarah smiled at her friend and placed her hand slowly on his. However, just as Ludo was pulled back through the gap in reality, back down underground and thinking Sarah would arrive with him, she let go.
Sarah let go and her insides ached. She laid a hand over the place where she felt the pain and almost forgot to breath. Letting the underground go was a tender thing and she knew the price would be her own heart. Like blood pulsing behind an old bruise. Never fading completely, but dimming enough to be bearable. She didn't mind the pain though: it reminded her that there had once been something to let go of.