L'amour Fou

by A.L.S.O.

Chapter IV - Flirting with Disaster

Satine woke up the next morning with a stiff back and a sticky face from all the tears. Her hair was a mess and her dress was wrinkled, not to mention her makeup was one big blur on her cheeks. She grimaced at her reflection in the mirror and slipped immediately into the iron tub, sinking under the steaming water.

Christian woke up in practically the same fashion, his brow furrowed at the memory of the previous nights events. His head pounded and throbbed and his throat was scratchy and sore, but he reluctantly pulled himself out of bed when he heard the scrambling of the children in the shop below. He washed his face quickly and changed into a new suit, then marched his way downstairs to the shop.

Satine had waken up before Christian had and was ready before him, too, and had been in the shop for nearly a quarter of an hour when he entered with a dumbfounded expression--that face, that beautiful face looked so familiar yet so different as to any pulchritude face he had seen before and he longed to reach out and touch.

"Do I look that horrible?" Satine laughed, trying to hide its nervousness. She had forgotten that he had never seen her face before! What if he recognized her? "I had a bad night," she explained afterwards with an inward sigh.

"Yes--I mean no, no you look beautiful--or, uh, you look fine! Well, not saying you don't look beautiful, because you do--" Christian found himself stumbling over his words and sentences, completely rambling and confused, and having no idea why. It was just Sarah, right?

Satine laughed again and stopped him from continuing. "I know what you mean," she said. "It's okay, you don't have to be so nervous. We're friends, right?"

Christian nodded, walking over to the door and flipping the open/close sign to 'Open.' Deep inside, his heart was churning and something was flitting around in his stomach, almost the same as Satine's was.

What am I doing? she thought vehemently. The night before she had been cursing him for entering her life, and here she was asking him to be her friend? She was flirting with disaster! She could almost feel its cold hand gripping her throat as she stared at him, but the feelings inside her made it impossible...

"So," said Satine, clearing her throat and turning back to the children, "what do you guys want to do today?"

"Are you taking them somewhere?" he asked, joining Christopher and Amour behind the counter. Satine leaned lazily on the other side and shrugged.

"If it's okay with you, I mean," she said. She directed the rest towards her son and his friend, "And nothing expensive, I don't have much money."

"I can give you some to take them out," Christian offered, reaching for the cash register.

"No, that's okay, really," said Satine. "I just don't have a job right now and I'm just being wary of the little savings I have."

"Have you checked for jobs downtown?" said Christian.

"Yes, but no one is exactly looking for an unmarried mother who can't do anything but sew," she muttered sarcastically.

"You don't know how to cook or clean or anything like that?"

"I can sing," Satine shrugged again. "And I can dance and act, too, but that's about it."

Christian laughed. "You remind me of S--" he stopped abruptly, his eyes widening. It was the first time he had mentioned Satine by name aloud since she had died. "Never mind," he said quickly. "Anyway, you've checked everywhere for a job?"

"Yes, but no one seems to want to hire me," she looked out the display window wistfully, and Christian had the sudden urge to reach out and touch that long black hair that flowed over her shoulders, half of it pulled back into a barrette. It was so straight and looked so soft, he wanted to bury his face in it and whisper sweet nothings to her ear. He pulled himself together, and just as he did, a sudden idea struck him.

"Why don't you work here?" he said, his voice at first squeaking in apprehensiveness.

"What?" Satine's head snapped towards him and her eyes grew larger.

"Sorry, I mean you don't have to--"

"No, I'd love to!" she said reassuringly, even though her mind was telling her not to. Don't! it seemed to cry out at her. Remember—you're already on the verge of disaster! Do you really want to do anymore damage to your life? But who was she to listen to, her mind or her heart? "I'd love to work here."

Her heart.

"Really?" Christian said with an uneasy smile. He was just as uncertain as she was at this--was he betraying his love to Satine by hiring a beautiful woman he was...attracted to?

Attracted! he mentally shouted. You promised yourself you wouldn't love another person after you lost Satine....

"Yes, that would be great!" she said, her face breaking out into a wide grin. "I'd be able to walk here in the morning, it's just across the street. But--are you sure about this?"

"Of--of course," he said shakily, but his heart warmed considerably when her face lit up at this new situation. "When would you like to start?"

"I'll come Monday after Amour goes to school, okay?"

"Sure, that's a deal."

If that had been flirting with disaster before, over the next couple of weeks Satine practically married it. Every day she walked to the shop and worked with Christian, and when school was let out, the children helped out as well. Being with Christian again brought back all the horrible memories, all the pain she was caused and what she inflicted herself, but with each day she found a new yearning to be near him, and it grew stronger and stronger as the time passed between them.

Christian found himself watching her, though he was too embarrassed to admit it, in a sexual way and found himself attracted to her even more. She was so beautiful and reminded him so much of Satine, that it was almost impossible to not see the resemblance. His heart leapt at her voice, his face glowed at her appearance, but still she showed no signs of returning his affection.

Of course, Satine knew what she was doing. She wouldn't give in; she would torture him for even daring to look at another girl! Had her forgotten her? Was she piled under the years of pain and was refused to let surface? Her heart ached when she realized Christian was falling for another, even if it was the same girl. If he could fall in love so easily with someone else, who was to say he hadn't done it several times since she 'died'?

To the townspeople, the truth was plain; the two were completely in love. Mrs. Gerber would start bawling when she saw the two together, so happy she was, and had to limp away on her cane before she had a heart attack from all the excitement.

Yet both Satine and Christian knew that they weren't 'completely in love.' They were so close, so near it that their very hearts could feel the pulsating emotions, but both of them stopped the other and themselves from going the whole way. Satine was caught on her future, she wanted her son to have the best life possible, and in order for that to happen, Christian could in no way be involved, especially if he ever found out who she really was. And Christian was caught in the past. He couldn't get his mind off of Satine whenever he saw Sarah, and it was then that he felt most guilty about what he was doing.

But there was no doubt about it—they were falling in love faster than disaster could keep up, but as always, it wasn't far behind.

A/N: Sorry this chapter was so short...it was just kind of here to show you that though they were falling for each other, nothing's ever destined to go perfect, right? Next chapter they actually give in to their feelings!! It should be up either today or tomorrow.

Also, another HAPPY ANNIVERSARY/BIRTHDAY SHOUT TO MOULIN ROUGE!! ONE YEAR SINCE IT CAME OUT IN THEATERS AND STILL IT REMAINS THE BEST MOVIE! Well, to me at least.

Oh, just something I noticed and thought I would point out...in this chapter it's June 1, or at least starts out to be, and today is June 1st...sorry, thought I'd just add that.

Special Thanks: to all of you people who reviewed...you made me cry and feel as if I actually wrote something half worth reading. Thank you so much! Oh, and sandpiper...I love Chocolat! It's such a cute movie! And now that I think about it, the shop does remind me of the one in my story.

Translations:

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Disclaimer: I sadly don't own Moulin Rouge or any of its affiliates. If I did I certainly wouldn't be here whining about it.

I don't own the songs either:

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