I Will Wait For You, a moulin rouge fanfic

I Will Wait For You
by She's a Star

Disclaimer: MR = Bazzie's.

With Or Without You = U2's.

Whee. :)

Author's Note: I surprised myself with this fic...

~*~

All the world's a stage.

A stage.

That's all your world has ever been.

Your sole purpose is to please others, to put on the perfect performance for a skeptical audience. You are flawless.

And yet I only wish you would set yourself free.

See the stone set in your eyes

See the thorn twist in your side

I will wait for you.

I've tried to save you: I've struggled and fought and done everything I could to free you of this world.

But now I see that only you can save yourself.

I hate being powerless; I hate the fact that I can't ride up on the white horse and whisk you off into the sunset.

But it is out of my hands.

Sleight of hand and twist of fate

On a bed of nails she makes me wait

I will wait for you.

You tell me you don't love me, that you could never love me.

Still, I sit here like a fool, gazing out of my window and waiting, waiting, while I know all the while that you've willingly given yourself to another man.

With or without you

I don't want to love you like I do. I don't want to remember all the smiles that you've given me, all your light sweet laughter that has blessed my ears.

With or without you

But I do.

Through the storm we reach the shore

You give it all but I want more

And I'm waiting for you.

You've told me countless times that our love could never work, and yet your words never haunt me. I simply ignore them, simply cannot process them, simply believe that a love this pure could never be unrequited.

All the while I know that I'm lying to myself.

And yet it soothes me somehow.

With or without you

I wonder how many idle 'I love you's have escaped your lips.

I wish for only one of them...just one. Even if it were insincere, even if you were merely lying out of pity or annoyance.

I need you.

I can't live

With or without you.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, far from the countless smiles and endless optimism, I knew that this would happen.

Another man would come into your life, a man who seemed entirely wrong for you, a man who I never would dream that you could care about.

But you do care about him.

As you will never care for me.

And you give yourself away...

I see now that I'm inferior to him, that I was a fool to think that you wouldn't fall into his arms.

And yet it's so unfair.

And you give...

I always loved you, Satine. I loved you deeply, purely; I love you so much that all other aspects of my soul have faded away, leaving only you. My love for you.

And you give...

I can't bear to watch you simply give yourself away anymore. Can't you see that he'll hurt you, Satine? That he'll never love you as I could?

As I do?

And you give yourself away.

Surely you know how I love you. You must, I know that you do. Surely you can't think it to be nothing more than a silly infatuation.

I love you.

How could anyone not love you?

You are life and death, day and night, purity and sin, beauty and hideousness.

You are everything.

And I nothing.

My hands are tied

My body bruised

You've destroyed me. You blessed me with hope, Satine, a hope that I had found true love, that I was finally experiencing what I'd always dreamt of.

And you ripped it out of my hands.

I would give anything...

Anything for your love.

Nothing left to win and

Nothing left to lose

Love's nothing more than a game, is it, Satine? I've fooled myself for so long, believing that it's sacred and beautiful and pure and real.

Now I know that it's nothing.

Tricks of the mind, cruel ensnarements of the weak and vulnerable.

I am lost in you.

And you give yourself away...

I watch you pretend, Satine.

And I've seen through every facade, every act, every repertoire of a woman composed of merely beauty, a woman who cannot feel and does not care.

And I see you now, raw and real, and I know that you could never love me.

With or without you...

I know you've never looked twice.

Before, I always wanted to deny it, but now I know.

I sit here, the sweet, cool Parisian air filled with blossoming love and a distant melody.

I watch you murmur something to Christian before your lips meet. I can feel the fireworks, shimmering amongst the cerulean sky.

And shaking, crying, I sing, knowing that I will always sing alone.

"How wonderful life is...now you're in the world."

I can't live

With or without you.